Data processing systems have evolved dramatically over the past several years. Chief among the abilities of current data processing systems is an ability to access and interface with a number of other data processing systems via a system of connections, commonly referred to as the Internet. As use of the Internet has become more common, the development of computer interfaces, commonly referred to as "web pages," has increased. When a web page is developed, the developer of the web page may desire to utilize files available on the Internet.
When available files on the Internet are accessed and used by web page developers, current development applications require the developer to save the information corresponding to an accessed web page to a local memory of the user. Thus, if a wide variety of web pages are desired to be used from other sources on the Internet, a significant amount of memory may be consumed in the local data processing system when the web page information is stored thereto.
Alternatively, some web page navigation tools implement the use of "bookmarks." Applications utilizing bookmarks include Netscape Communicator 4.0 and the Netscape Communicator Professional Edition 4.0, among others. During operation, an application which utilizes bookmarks identifies URL (Uniform Research Locator) strings for each of the resources desired to be accessed in the developed web page. The bookmarks are typically stored in a HTML (hypertext mark-up language) file located in a memory of the local data processing system implementing the bookmark. Subsequently, a bookmark menu may be provided to display these URL's by a document title or by the URL string itself, if the title is not available, to indicate the resources saved to a user's system. While bookmarks are useful tools, a developer of a web page must track and record a type of file which corresponds to the bookmark and remember the application associated with the URL string of the bookmark. Stated another way, a developer of a web page does not know a type of object available at the end of a bookmark simply because a bookmark exists.
In addition to bookmarks, some web navigators implement the use of "links." When links are utilized, URL's corresponding to search results are saved in a similar manner as a bookmark. Thus, links and bookmarks may be used within current graphical user interfaces to allow a user to access a URL corresponding to a desired application on the Internet, but do not allow the use to access the object corresponding to the URL. Note that both the bookmark and the link functions require a user to know a URL.
When links and bookmarks are utilized to develop a web page, some development tools utilize site maps to implement a hierarchial template for developing the web page. In such site maps, relationships between web pages are graphically illustrated to a user. Therefore, by using a site map, the web pages which may be accessed from a web page are graphically illustrated to the web page developer.
Each of the aforementioned methodologies for developing a web page requires a developer to determine a URL before the contents of the web page associated with the URL may be accessed. Additionally, the developer must know the object associated with the URL accessed by their developed web page. Therefore, a need exists for a methodology and data processing system that allows a user to easily determine a type of file that is to be accessed by a web page the user is developing, without actually accessing the file or determining the URL associated with the web page.